The problem with flying

Everyone who knows me knows that I hate flying. It's loud, uncomfortable, confining and if things go wrong there's no way out. (I'm an advocate of parachutes under seat, not inflatable vests.) But the real reason I hate flying these days is the environmental impact. a) Apparently you're better off driving to your destination, alone, even if it's thousands of miles away, than being on a full plane. That's how bad the fuel consumption is. b) Planes dump their emissions in the most delicate part of the stratosphere and there's nothing to help mitigate the damage. For all of the pollution cars create, we have our plant life down here to help soften the blow. c) They are noisy, booming things and no matter where we go, we seem to be able to hear one or see one, even the far hills of Scotland. d) The amount of packaging they use per passenger is amazing. When my husband recently flew on a short haul flight to Amsterdam, he asked the air steward if they recycled any of the cans, cups etc and the air steward dismissed his question by saying 'that would be far too expensive.' So they are massive air polluters, noise polluters, they create masses of plastic rubbish, are fuel hungry and the actual airlines don't recycle their waste or seem to care to. And how does the UK government respond? Subsidies of course. They prop them up with heaps of money to make it cheaper for consumers to perpetuate the cycle. The subsidies work out to something like £500 per person in the UK that go to the airline industry. I don't understand how this is possible.